The Diablo III Forums have word that the Scrolls of Companion and Scrolls of Reforging have been dropped from the Diablo III beta among the recently announced systems changes for Blizzard's action/RPG sequel (thanks VG247). Here's word:

Nethaera Community Manager A few more changes have made their way in to Diablo III beta patch 10, including the removal of Scrolls of Companion and Scrolls of Reforging, and we’ll be updating the patch notes to reflect that.

In both cases these are features we felt were underdeveloped and just not quite good enough for the game in their current state. The companion pets felt like they were mandatory to maximize play efficiency and some of the pets were too cutesy for the gritty, dark world of Sanctuary. Neither of those are issues we felt like we could solve without a lot of additional work, and we’re trying to close in on a solid release date for the game, not move further away. When weighing these systems against releasing the game, we decided to cut these scrolls and stay on track for the game’s release.

We think we can make companion pets into a much cooler system (both mechanically and visually), and evolve the reforging scrolls into a more meaningful system at some point in the future. For the time being, they will not be in the initial release of the game.

To believe that it is business as usual at Blizzard when concerning D3 is not looking at all the facts. This late into the game, they made major changes. Yes, they even released the CE info, then announced major changes...This alone should raise a red flag...With that said, I have been a Blizzard fan for a long time. However, to make major game changes like this, this late into the game shows signs of bad decision making by leadership within the d3 team. I have major problems with certain individuals on the boards (and it has nothing to do with my forum bans)acting like nothing was done wrong...You know what, be honest about it and move the hell on...

With that said, I have two CEs on preorder and I will keep them on preorder until the game is released (unless more bs is handed to me). I will also make sure Blizzard gets a nice long letter written to them sent via certified mail...